Monday, February 9, 2009
Damn It A-Rod:
Every time The Common Man tries to get out, they keep pulling him back in. A quick comment here: A-Rod is finally showing some good judgment in confessing to ESPN's Peter Gammons. At this point, there's nothing that he can do (you know, short of murdering Derek Jeter) to hurt his reputation further with baseball fans in general, and Yankee fans in particular. Getting all the details out and owning up to his decisions is the only reasonable way out of the hole he's in. At this point, he has to atone for his sins and work his way back into the public's good graces, and he's choosing to do that immediately and directly, rather than (as The Common Man's friend Bill points out) waffling about trying it once and not liking it (Hi, Andy Pettite!) or simply not commenting further. He opens himself up now to the possibility of becoming a spokesperson against PEDs, by confessing to his mistake, talking about the drugs' effects on his body and mind, and discussing his shame. And $25 million a year does a lot to assuage feelings of guilt and shame (The Common Man assumes; he's never had the good fortune to know first-hand). Today, for whatever reason, A-Rod's acting like a man. Good for him.
Now The Common Man is going to disconnect his internet connection with a sledgehammer, so that he won't have to listen to this any more.
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2 comments:
it's the "pressure" and the "culture" though, that did it.
please. that's an excusapology which is NotManly.
After some review, The Common Man thinks you're probably right, BikeMonkey. A-Rod did try to slough off a fair amount of responsibility in his apology. And perhaps in his relief to get this story moving in the right direction (so that it gets off the front page and into the rearview mirror), The Common Man got unduly excited.
That said, if you look at the Rangers in the '90s and early '00s, it's pretty clear there was a culture of use going on in Arlington. Just from the Mitchell Report Pudge Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, David Segui, Ken Caminiti, Ismael Valdes, and A-Rod all played for the team between '98 and '03, and that's only the players that have been mentioned. The Common Man doesn't have trouble believing that a 25 year old, perpetual adolescent (who has been part of the clubhouse mentality all of his adult life) would be heavily influenced by that culture. Not an excuse, necessarily, but an explanation. Either way, there should be a serious investigation into those teams, their on field management, strength and conditioning staff, and front office, because The Common Man can't believe that that aggregation of players is not an accident, and that no one knew anything.
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